Leads/Prospects – Which pages sent us the most leads? All of our pages have ads on them – which pages encouraged people to click on or respond to the most ads?

Couple of observations:

Three are about social media

Five are about sales skills

All are “how to” or usable information

We advise our clients to look at what THEIR audiences react to – it doesn’t matter how much we may personally like doing a particular type of content, what matters most is what our audience thinks, and what they react to and what brings you sales.

Need great ideas for your own blog? Check our list of ideas for great aviation articles here.

These things may not be immediately measurable. As an example – people may see an article but may contact us weeks later. We never really know unless we talk to them and keep notes, which of our materials was most influential in helping them decide that working with ABCI was a good idea.

Weirdly, these are not the articles we spend the most time and energy creating. Many hypothesis were blown to smithereens in the compilation of this list.

Without further ado, here are the most successful articles of 2016.

1 – Using LinkedIn for Prospecting

How to use LinkedIn for prospecting in aviation – LinkedIn is the most used and most respected social media for aviation professionals. In this week’s episode, we show you how to mine LinkedIn for ideal prospects for your product or service!

2 – LinkedIn Company Pages to Follow

Linkedin has been listed by aviation professionals as the most respected and one of the most used social media.

Most of us have a LinkedIn profile, and most of us use it for more than just job-hunting or candidate-seeking.

Most of us are very familiar with the personal profiles on LinkedIn. But there’s another very powerful feature on LinkedIn that can provide even better in-depth information about the industry – company pages.

We recommend that organizations create or customize a page that represents their business on LinkedIn for aviation, and follow those of companies you do business with or admire.

3 – Your Dress Code as Marketing

4 – Prospecting, Calls to Action, & Lead Magnets

A great Call to Action (or CTA, as we marketing nerds call it) helps qualified prospects find YOU. It also reduces sales resistance by positioning you and your company as a resource, rather than as someone trying to sell them something!

We talk about different types of CTAs that work for different types of products, including consultations, demos, trials, buyer’s guides and more.

5 – What NOT to do on a Sales Call

In the aviation industry, our clients often have a limited number of prospective clients. They could be limited by geography, resources, or the type of plane they fly. So our clients can’t afford to make a bad first impression – and neither can we. And yet, we have to make sales calls! On the phone! Where things can go so badly, so quickly.

So, here’s the lowdown on what NOT to do in that critical first sales call with a prospective customer.

6 – Trade Show Secrets for the Aviation Industry

The biggest trade show secrets are not really secrets. In fact, it’s those very things that you think should be SO OBVIOUS but NOBODY SEEMS TO DO THEM. In decades of attending aviation trade shows as a buyer, seller, and consultant, we see that maybe ten percent of companies actually do what they say they know they should do.

We named this episode “Trade Show ‘Secrets’,” kind of in jest, because everybody really should know this stuff, but nobody seems to actually DO it.

It drives me crazy walking around a trade show floor, looking at the amount of money spent – wasted, actually, by companies who think they already know all this stuff but THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG! ?

8 – Direct Response Social Media with Kim Walsh Phillips

We were thrilled to get Kim Walsh-Phillips to spend some time using her social media expertise. Kim gives us some specific tips that are perfect for the complex, high-trust, large-ticket and long-cycle sales that the aviation industry is famous (or infamous) for.

9 – SEO for Aviation with TJ Mitchell of Boostability

TJ Mitchell, a fellow Utahn and SEO expert, talks with us about how to help customers find your website, how SEO is different for very niche companies (like aviation companies) and vintage Mustangs. (Cars, in this case, not horses or airplanes.)

10 – Interviewing Airline CEOs with Shashank Nigam

I was excited to compare notes with another marketing professional, but one with a very different wheelhouse – Shashank works with airlines, not with business aviation. And much of his work is international, while ours is mostly in the United States.

Shashank Nigam, the CEO of SimpliFlying, is one of the world’s leading experts in aviation marketing. His company, SimpliFlying, has worked with over 75 airlines and airports on marketing strategy since 2009. Shashank recently published his first book, ‘SOAR’, which showcases eight of the most innovative airlines in the world. SOAR sold out its first print run within ten days.